Farewell to India

Our ten week trip in India has been an incredible adventure.  We signed the end of our first post with the words  "Traveling & Learning" and this certainly came true for us. We have learned so much about India: the culture, the people, the history, customs, architecture, seen the poverty, trash, diverse scenery and met so many interesting people, other travelers, learned to ride the India Railways, pay in Rupees, a shopping paradise, caste system, and so much more.

We have changed our plans many times and made some great friendships.  We never felt in danger and found the people in India to be caring, kind and always helping us solve some kind of problem.

Our final two days are spent in Delhi where we get our flight home to the USA. But one last adventure. We were invited to the house of the driver (Anil) who took us through Rajasthan for 16 days. He wasn't in Delhi so he arranged for his brother in-law to pick us up at our hotel and take us to his home so we could meet his family.

HIs wife cooked us an incredible Indian lunch with spiced rice and peas, curry patatoes, dal, mixed vegetables, chapati, and green tea. We finished with Indian rice pudding.  Home cooking at its best.

Anil's wife, children and brother in-law. 

Rishikesh- Last stop before we return home.

We took a flight from Varanasi to Delhi and hired a taxi to drive us to our final destination- Rishikesh.  Rishikesh became well known when the Beatles came for an extended period of time to study with a yogi. It is called the the "Yoga Capital of the World" and is a very spiritual place. Now it is also know as a gateway to the Himalayas. It is a mountainous place and the Ganges River flows through the middle of the town.

This is the cafe where the Beatles hung out.

The restaurant was full of Beatle memorabilia.

Bryson, Charlie and I took a swim in the Ganga River. The water was ice cold but refreshing and the water was very clean.

A Ganga River ceremony was performed by Guruji.

We lit incense sticks and each of us set a flower boat afloat into the Ganga.

Bryson, Josefine and Henry. We stayed at the same hotel with Josefine and Henry, our Swedish friends. Bryson is from LA and is doing photograph work in India.  We went to the Tattv Cafe for our meals as it was a meeting place for people and the food was good. 

There is a world yoga conference being held here this week. We went to hear Guru Mooji speak (called a Sat Sang).

The Ganga River.

View from our rooftop.

There were three bedrooms in this building and we had one of the bedrooms. This hotel (Dhamanda) was located way up a mountain and we used scooter to get from here into town.

Charlie, Jari and Bryson.

This was an incredible group of people. Charlie, Jane, Leo & Hanana (recent high school graduates traveling for 4 months in India and Germany) Josefine, Jari & Henry. Missing Bryson

The farewell ceremony that Jari, Josefine, and Henry gave to us just before we got into an auto rickshaw to take us to town and get a taxi to take us to the train station for a 8 hour ride to Delhi.